The invention relates to a motor vehicle.
The number of different functionalities in mobile telephones, which are connectable via Bluetooth to a hands-free speech unit of a motor vehicle, will increase rapidly in the coming years. Up to this point, motor vehicle hands-free speech units have primarily been used for connecting mobile telephones, in order to ensure the functionality of “telephoning” or “calling”. In addition, the function of “displaying telephone books of the mobile telephone in the passenger compartment” has been implemented in a subset of hands-free speech units available on the market. The operability of this function (telephone book download) is typically not implemented by standardized Bluetooth commands, but rather by proprietary Bluetooth commands.
Future mobile terminals will offer, in addition to the telephony function, a plurality of further functions (audio streaming, data transmission, SMS download, etc.), which may be used by the motor vehicle via a Bluetooth coupling.
The Bluetooth hardware and the Bluetooth stack associated therewith will allow more than one terminal to be connected to the motor vehicle simultaneously (point-to-multipoint, referred to hereafter as PTMP). Completely new customer applications thus result for the vehicle, for example, telephoning via a mobile terminal via the loudspeaker of the vehicle, while audio data are transmitted to the vehicle via a second connected mobile terminal, which may be heard by a backseat passenger via headphones.
The invention seeks to provide a motor vehicle which is practicably connectable to at least one terminal.
This is accomplished according to the invention by providing a motor vehicle having a wireless interface to a mobile terminal, a storage unit, in which information about vehicle functions is stored, and a control unit, which is set up in such a way that: (i) information about terminal functions is transmitted via the wireless interface from the terminal to the control unit; (ii) the information about vehicle functions is compared to the information about terminal functions; and (iii) information about corresponding vehicle functions and terminal functions is stored in the storage unit. Advantageous refinements of the invention are described herein.
A motor vehicle according to the invention includes a wireless interface unit, in particular according to the Bluetooth protocol known per se, for information exchange with a mobile terminal.
Advantageously, multiple terminals, which may each execute a plurality of different functions, may particularly be coupled or connected simultaneously to the motor vehicle via the wireless interface unit. A terminal may be a mobile telephone, a portable computer or PDA, or a portable entertainment device, for example.
In addition, a storage unit is provided, in which information about vehicle functions, in particular about vehicle functions which each support the use of a terminal function in or by the motor vehicle, are stored, and in which further information is or will be optionally stored. The storage unit may include one or more storage modules, which may each be associated with one or more control units or may be comprised thereby.
A control unit, which may include one or more controllers, is particularly programmed such that information about terminal functions is transmitted via the wireless interface from the terminal to the control unit. The stored information about vehicle functions is compared to the information about terminal functions, and information about corresponding vehicle functions and terminal functions is stored in the storage unit. The control unit, in particular parts of the control unit, may be a component of a vehicle head unit and/or a motor vehicle hands-free speech unit.
Terminal functions include, for example, a hands-free speech function, an audio player function, a short message function, a video function, and/or a data transmission function. The use of, or the access to, the corresponding terminal function is supported or made possible by the motor vehicle by one vehicle function in each case.
Based on the knowledge of the terminal functions, which are supported by both the motor vehicle and also the terminal, a reliable interaction between the motor vehicle and the terminal is achieved by the invention.
A preferred motor vehicle additionally includes a display unit. Based on the information about corresponding vehicle functions and terminal functions, at least one display object, which represents one vehicle function and one corresponding terminal function in each case, is shown on the display unit. For example, a symbol representing a hands-free speech function is displayed after it has been established that the hands-free speech function is supported by both the motor vehicle, in particular the hands-free speech unit of the motor vehicle (as a vehicle function), and also by the terminal (as a terminal function).
A user is thus reliably and easily comprehensibly informed about terminal functions of a terminal which are available to him using the employed motor vehicle.
Preferably, information about the terminal identity is transmitted to the control unit from the terminal via the wireless interface, and the display object shows an associated terminal display object, which represents the information about the terminal identity. Thus, also in the event of simultaneous coupling or connection of the motor vehicle to multiple terminals, an easily comprehensible overview of the coupled or connected terminals and the terminal functions available through each of them may be conveyed.
Preferably, content data (audio data, speech telephony data, short message data, or other useful data) are generated by at least one active terminal function, which is particularly selected or activated via an operating unit of the motor vehicle, and this data is particularly read by a storage unit or received by a receiver unit. The content data are transmitted via the wireless interface, in particular a partial protocol of the wireless interface corresponding to the terminal function, from the terminal to the control unit. The display object representing the active terminal function is then emphasized or highlighted according to a preferred refinement in some unique fashion, in particular, by being shown as marked by a check, bolded, enlarged, lighted, in a different color, in a first position, etc. It is thus easily obvious which terminal function is currently used, in particular by which terminal. For example, the Bluetooth profile HFP (for the functions of telephony or hands-free speech), A2DP or AVRCP (for the function of audio streaming), AVDP (for the function of video), or DUN or PAN (for the function of data transmission) come into consideration as the partial protocol of the Bluetooth protocol. The suitable partial protocol is preferably started before a transmission of the corresponding content data or is used to establish a connection. It is also within the scope of the invention that the display object representing the active terminal function is shown emphasized independently of whether content data is actually generated, read, received, or transmitted, in particular as soon as a partial protocol corresponding to the terminal function allows a transmission of content data, as soon as a corresponding connection is established, or as soon as the corresponding terminal function is activated on the terminal and is connected to the control unit.
The information transmitted about the terminal identity from the terminal to the control unit via the wireless interface is preferably associated with information in particular about the last active terminal function of the corresponding terminal. The information about the terminal identity is stored together with the associated information in particular about the last active terminal function of the corresponding terminal in the storage unit in particular.
After receiving information about the terminal identity, in particular after a connection of the terminal to the motor vehicle (for example after a user has entered the motor vehicle with his terminal), it is preferably checked whether the information about the received terminal identity is stored with associated information, in particular about last active terminal function of the terminal. If such information is stored, then:
(i) the corresponding terminal function and advantageously the corresponding vehicle function are automatically activated,
(ii) the content data generated by the terminal function are automatically transmitted via the wireless interface, in particular a partial protocol of the wireless interface corresponding to the terminal function, from the terminal to the control unit, and/or
(iii) the display object representing the corresponding terminal function is shown emphasized.
Thus, after the coupling or connection of a terminal to a motor vehicle, an access to a terminal function occurs in a simple and user-friendly way via the motor vehicle, which corresponds with a high probability to the user's desire.
For the case in which multiple—in particular not yet connected—terminals are available simultaneously within the wireless interface range, information is received about multiple terminal identities. In this case, it is checked which terminal identity was last active. It is then checked whether the information about the last active terminal identity is stored with associated information about a last active terminal function. If such information is stored, the corresponding terminal function, and advantageously the corresponding vehicle function, are automatically activated and/or the content data generated by the terminal function are transmitted automatically via the wireless interface, in particular a partial protocol of the wireless interface corresponding to the terminal function, from the terminal to the control unit, and/or the display object representing the corresponding terminal function is shown emphasized.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.